7 Apr 2021

Woodchopper Darcell Apelu on combining her axe with her art

From Nine To Noon, 11:29 am on 7 April 2021
A video still from Darcell Apelu’s Reaction to Insults.

A video still from Darcell Apelu’s Reaction to Insults. Photo: supplied

Darcell Apelu is a champion woodchopper with a string of titles under her belt. In 2019 she took out much of the Sydney Royal Easter Show before going on to win the Inaugural New Zealand Stihl Timbersport Women's Championship.

While Covid affected international and national competitions last year, she won two competitions on the South Island circuit.

She's also a visual and performance artist who uses her body to explore themes of perceptions of the Pacific body, identity and being 'the other'.

She joins Kathryn to talk about her time as artist-in-residence at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in the UK and how she balances a busy life with teaching creative arts at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology in Tauranga.